JOHOR BARU: The government’s main priority now is to eradicate hardcore poverty and to ensure all schools have decent facilities, says Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.

The Prime Minister stressed that the government’s spending would be based on this priority.

"We have been borrowing including from the World Bank and now our debts have touched RM1.5 trillion.

"Those days in the 1990s when I was finance minister, we had a surplus budget. Now it is a deficit," he said, adding that corruption and leakages was also a problem that needed to be addressed.

He said that next year, the government was committed to reviewing the salaries of public servants including lecturers, which had not been reviewed for the past 12 years despite the need to do it every 10 years.

He also stressed the need to look into housing quarters for the police and army personnel, which were in bad shape in certain places.

He was speaking to students and educators during a dialogue session in UTM here on Sunday (Sept 3).

On a question from a student for all STPM students to be provided with free laptops and devices to help with their studies regardless of their families' household income, Anwar’s reply drew laughter from the audience as such a move would bankrupt the country.

He also stressed the importance of a strong and stable government to provide confidence to investors to come and invest in Malaysia.

More to come